Taiwan 2024 - Waterfall Area Near Chenjean's Village, Beginning of Hike to the Falls / Vance's Hillbilly Elegy

Within an easy walk from Chenjean's village is a very picturesque waterfall.  It was a tourist attraction when she was growing up, and her earliest memories include selling little trinkets to the tourists breezing through town on their way to the falls.  For a time her mother served them meals in what amounted to a tiny restaurant, complete with tables and chairs set up on their front patio.

Then one of the myriad hurricanes hit the area hard enough to wash away the infrastructure leading up to the falls, effectively cutting them off to visitors.  It took a long time - decades in fact - to plan and build what you'll see in this series, but they did a good job (pic here of construction equipment during that period), and the throngs of visitors have returned to the little village.  This year we were there in March, so the weather was good enough to entice wave after wave of these tourists, deposited by bus mere feet from Chenjean's front door.  Once again, most residents have taken to selling trinkets and food from their front patios.

The photo above is looking back toward the road leading into town; below is a view from the foot of the bridge toward the falls showing a tower of steps in the background.  This was just the beginning, as there were more than 500 steps leading to the attraction.

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Just finished reading Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance.  What a book!  Glad to see someone coming into the top federal level that has some real character.

Speaking of Trump...good gosh, he's not even president yet, but already has expressed his desire to:  1) take back the Panama Canal; 2) make Canada the 51st U.S. state; 3) purchase Greenland from Denmark; and 4) rename the Gulf of Mexico!  God knows we need a wall, but this is something else.  And he's already acting as president, pushing foreign leaders to treat him as though already sworn in.  This is going to be a very interesting ride...